Talking About a Revolution

The Seiko Watch Corporation has always been at the forefront of watch-making technology. With its latest release of the Spring Drive, the company looks poised to spark yet another major change in the industry.

Driven to Lead

Seiko has always taken great pride in being an innovator. From its humble beginnings as a clock supply factory and clockmaker established toward the end of the 19th century in the Ginza district of Tokyo, it ventured into watch-making, eventually releasing its first wristwatch model in 1924. But it was in 1969 that Seiko attained global fame by becoming the first watch company to successfully develop and market quartz watch technology. The world’s very first quartz watch, the Astron, was launched on December 25, 1969, months ahead of its Swiss competitors. This was quite a remarkable feat at the time, since Swiss manufacturers had long been recognized as the leaders in creating high-end, quality timepieces. Fast forward to 2008, and it appears Seiko is going to cause another stir by giving world yet another luxurious and technologically advanced wristwatch from the land of the rising sun.

On the surface, the Seiko Spring Drive Chronograph looks like another solidly and masterfully crafted example of timekeeping. From the stainless steel casing, black and red accents in the dials and hands, see-through caseback using sapphire crystal, the Spring Drive Chronograph merges standard chronograph functionality with stylish modern looks. But beneath this surface hides something that is, indeed, quite revolutionary.

The Achilles Heel?

The seeds of the Spring Drive Revolution were sown as early as 1977, when Yoshikazu Akahane, an engineer at the Suwa Seikosha facility, conceived the idea of the “everlasting watch,” a timepiece that would reflect the actual smooth flow of time. To accomplish this goal, designers focused on what they viewed as the weakest and possibly most problematic part of traditional watch mechanisms: the escapement. This was the device that converted continuous rotational motion into an oscillating motion. It is the escapement that drives the timekeeping element, usually a pendulum or, in the case of a wristwatch, a balance wheel. It is powered by a gear train that is turned by a coiled spring or weight. The escapement controls the unwinding of the spring, regulated by the periodic spinning of the balance wheel, permitting the advancement of the gears by a fixed amount. This gear movement is what drives the hands of the watch forward at a steady rate. As the balance wheel spins back and forth, it releases the escapement from a “locked” state to a “drive” state for a short period, until the next gear tooth hits the locking mechanism on the escapement. This periodic releasing of energy and sudden stopping is what makes a watch “tick,” as demonstrated in the way the second hand moves across the watch face. In addition to regulating the gear movements, the escapement simultaneously keeps the balance wheel moving by giving it small pushes.

The critical element in escapement design is for it to give just the right amount of energy to the balance wheel, in order to keep spinning back and forth at a fixed rate during the period of its operation. But if the escapement fails, due to the deterioration of its lubrication, for example, the rate at which the balance wheel spins will be altered. The added friction on the escapement would result in less energy being transferred to the balance wheel, causing the watch to lose its accuracy over time. Seiko designers wanted to do away with this problematic mechanism in order to provide the greatest degree of accuracy for this new line of watches.

“Sweeping” Change

In 1969, Seiko released the automatic chronograph Calibre 6139, the world’s first movement that incorporated both a vertical clutch and column wheel for added stability and precision, and an updated version of this very technology is employed in the 2008 Spring Drive line. But even more noteworthy is the regulation system. This is what truly sets the Spring Drive apart from other mechanical watches. Within the watch, there is an oscillating weight that turns as the wearer moves, winding the mainspring. As the mainspring unwinds, the hands of the watch are driven forward. Instead of the traditional escapement, however, the Spring Drive utilizes what Seiko calls a Tri-Synchro Regulator that controls the speed of the mainspring and hands. A small fraction of the energy generated by the mainspring is used to power a quartz crystal oscillator and a control circuit. The accurate reference signal from the quartz oscillator is coordinated with the speed at which the mainspring unwinds. From there, a delicately controlled electromagnetic brake is applied to ensure the mainspring unwinds at exactly the proper rate to match the quartz oscillator. This is perhaps the only example of a watch movement that uses a time-only feedback or phase-locked loop, and utilizes a synergy of mechanical, electric and electromagnetic power

Because the watch uses precise and smoothly controlled rotary movements, the chronograph hands move in a gliding motion, recording elapsed time without the “ticking” normally associated with the conventional escapement mechanism. Thus, it is able to capture elapsed time to one-second-a-day accuracy. The vertical clutch delivers high precision to the chronograph operation, ensuring that the chronograph’s second hand never jumps. At the same time, the column wheel provides the needed stability for the switching mechanism. This technology guarantees that when engaging the sports timekeeping features of the watch, elapsed time is recorded at a precise point when the chronograph button in depressed, and no longer at just the nearest fraction of a second.

At its core, the Spring Drive Chronograph movement is made up of 416 parts and 50 jewels. It boasts of not only a chronograph accurate to one-second-a-day, but also a GMT indicator, and a 72 hour power reserve. And it looks like collectors and enthusiasts will have to move fast to acquire this watch, as Seiko will only be producing 300 pieces of the Spring Drive Chronograph.

A Moon Phase variant of the Spring Drive will also be produced, with a limited run of 200 pieces. Instead of a chronograph function, this watch will feature a moon phase indicator, and the smooth, continuous and unerring movement of the planets will be mirrored in the glide motion of the hands and in the moon phase dial.

All in all, Seiko has truly come up with an extremely refined and technically innovative timepiece. Seiko had stated that in order to predict the future, you have to invent it. Based on this revolutionary Spring Drive movement, the company has assured that the future is now.